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Archive/File: fascism/germany arm.092094
Last-Modified: 1994/11/24
From: ats@locust.cic.net (Arm The Spirit)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.politics.radical-left,soc.culture.german,alt.revisionism,alt.skinheads
Subject: Anti-Fascist News From Germany
Date: 20 Sep 1994 02:06:11 GMT
Message-ID: <35lg2j$ai0@spruce.cic.net>
Anti-Fascist News From Germany - Info Package #1
The following info is a compilation of news and articles that have
been sent to us from a comrade in Berlin. We hope to start posting
more of these info packages on a semi-regular basis.
Arm The Spirit - August 1994
Index:
1) June 4, 1994- Fight The FAP!
2) Antifascist Given 2 Year Jail Sentence
3) Judicial Inaction Against Neo-Nazis
4) Police Inaction Against Neo-Nazis
5) Police And Judicial Repression Against Anti-Fascists
6) One Year Probation For Holocaust Denier
7) Not Another Bitburg! No Recognition Of Neue Wache Memorial!
8) Police Raid In Goettingen
9) Goettingen Antifa Demo
10) Autonome Antifa (M) Statement
11) Declaration To The Press
12) Nazi Attacks In East Germany
13) More Right Wing Violence In Germany
14) 10 Berlin Cops Arrested
15) German Cop Jailed For Racist Assault
16) August 13-21: German Fascist Mobilization Fails
17) A United Far-Right In Germany?
18) German Nazis Involved Blitz Bombing?
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1) June 4, 1994 - Fight The FAP!
The nationally known neo-Nazi leader Thorsten Heise has been
using a house in Northeim, near Goettingen, for a Nazi
meeting-point for about a year. Thorsten Heise is chairperson of
the FAP (Freiheitlichen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei) in Lower Saxony.
He was the primary initiator of the Nazi march in Fulda in Summer,
1993. He and his collegues have been active in the fascist
international brigades in Croatia and South Africa.
The Autonome Antifa (M), together with a coalition that
includes mainstream groups, is mobilizing nation-wide for a
demonstration against the Nazi centre on June 4th. The goal of the
demo is to reach the Nazis' house. In order to lend these plans
the necessary weight, an equipped black block will lead the demo.
Equipment in this case means helmets and other important utensils.
All antifascists are called to participate in the demo!
The meaning of the FAP and the antifascist politics against
them are explained in the following article. Athough it is a bit
different from our regular column on fascist organizations, it
provides an timely view - in context of the upcoming demonstration
- into the mix between antifascist militant praxis and legal
activities.
The Fight Against The FAP In Lower Saxony
The FAP, founded in 1979 in Stuttgart, was at first only a
right-leaning regional splinter party. The FAP took on a fascist
orientation first in 1983 when the ANS/NA (Aktionsfront Nationaler
Sozialisten/National Aktivisten) was banned. The well-known
neo-Nazi Michael Kuehnen was one of the leaders of the
organization. Shortly before the ban he started thinking about
being sole leader of the organization. He contacted the FAP
chairperson, Pape, and began discussing plans to build the FAP into
a nation-wide party. In order to avoid having the FAP banned,
Kuehnen himself did not join the FAP. Nevertheless, it was clear
that he and his ANS/NA collegues were leading the FAP. Within one
year the FAP became the most important neo-Nazi party in the BRD.
It continues to hold this position today.
Lower Saxony has been a focal point of FAP activity since the
mid-80s, partly because one of the FAP leading activists, Karl
Polacek, lived in Mackenrode, a small village near Goettingen. His
house was known nation-wide as a fascist training centre. The
Austrian Polacek began his political career in the NDP (National
Demokratische Partei Deutschlands), which turned out to be too
insipid for him. After Polacek, at the time over 50 years old,
switched to the FAP, the party developed quickly in Lower Saxony.
FAP strategy was to get the party talked about. To do this, Polacek
brought Nazi-skinheads into his circle. They began their campaign
to become well-known in 1986 with stickers, graffiti and street
fights. On January 16, 1987, the young fascist Ingo Kretschmann
blew himself up while building a bomb. Kretschmann had been living
at the fascist centre until shortly before then. The police
admitted publicly that he had begun working with explosives while
he was living there. On the day of Kretschmann's funeral, a youth
center used primarily by immigrant youth burned down. Witnesses saw
skinheads on the scene. The police caught none of the perpetrators.
The FAP-Nazis received their first big blow in Goettingen on March
20, 1987. A party meeting, disguised as a harmless youth group
party, was attacked by autonomen and the "party guests" beaten up.
>From this time on brawls with fascists became more common. The
Nazis in Northeim, near Goettingen, began to provoke conflicts more
and more, especially with Turkish youth. During this phase Thorsten
Heise joined the FAP. The first successful systematic attack on the
FAP-centre took place on June 25, 1987. An antifa commando, named
after the 1930s resistance fighters Siegbert and Lotte Rothoz,
snuck by the watch dogs and other security measures into the house.
The Nazis were snug upstairs in their beds while the antifas
prepared a fire in the basement of the wooden house. As the
antifa-commando left the house undiscovered, the basement went up
in flames. Only the quick arrival of the fire department prevented
the whole house from burning down. The basement and garage - where
Polacek's car had been - could not be saved. After that, Polacek
went everywhere by foot.
The fascists became more careful, while at the same time
increased their terror. There were conflicts in Goettingen every
weekend, especially at what was the Autonomen meeting place at the
time, JuZI. The organized attack by 30 fascists on JuZI on January
23, 1988 was the highpoint of their attacks. Some Nazis were
equipped with steel helmets and threw Bundeswehr fog grenades.
Their attack was unsuccessful, thanks to a quickly barricaded JuZI.
The Autonomen response was quick: several hundred antifascists were
alerted over a telephone chain that Nazis were swarming around
JuZI. Lucky for the Nazis, a large police squadron came quickly to
the scene to protect them. During this action, the apartment of a
well-known FAP-activist was stormed and completely destroyed. After
this defeat, the Nazis ceased their activities in Goettingen and
concentrated on Northeim. The Autonomen Antifas, however, kept on
their tail. An antifascist coalition of school/youth initiatives,
student groups, the Greens, and trade unions was formed. A
demonstration on May 7, 1988 marched directly past the training
centre in Mackenrode. It was a large political success with its
1500 participants. This was the beginning of Autonomen coalition
politics and is the background to the demonstration on June 4th.
With this action, the Nazis were politically subdued, but of
course their training centre did not disappear. The fascists began
a new round of attacks and assaults at the end of 1988. Retaliative
actions from Autonomen were regularly attacked by the police. Many
Antifas were arrested during this time. During such an action
against Autonomen, on November 17, 1989, Conny was chased into
traffic by the police and killed. The political murder of Conny had
an enormous effect on the population. Because the police held back
in the time after Conny's death, Autonomen were able to push the
Nazis more and more out of Goettingen. Starting in 1988, Thorsten
Heise appeared increasingly often as an FAP leader. In 1990, he
became a definitive leader of the party. In April he organized a
mass meeting of skinheads in Nordhausen. Nordhausen, near
Goettingen, was still part of the DDR at the time. The fascists
tried to use that to their advantage. The 1000 Nazis gathered there
rioted. Stores were smashed and plundered and there were heavy
clashes with the police. Many were injured and 150 skinheads were
arrested. Thorsten Heise was called to court on a number of charges
in May 1990. After leaving the court a paper in which he declared
his plans to build the Nazi movement in the DDR, he went
underground in the DDR. He was finally arrested in East Berlin in
February 1991 and was sentenced to probation.
There was another dangerous confrontation in July 1991. As
Autonomen were observing the centre in Mackenrode, Polacek stormed
them and tried to hit one woman over the head with an axe. Thanks
to quick reflexes, the axe only grazed her head. Shortly
thereafter, at a spontaneous Antifa demo at Polacek's house, the
police shot CS-gas grenades at the antifascists in order to protect
the Nazi house.
New Years Eve 1990/1991: the situation escalated further. In
Rosdorf, a village neighboring Goettingen, Alexander Selchow was
stabbed to death by 2 FAP Nazis. Because Selchow was an
antifascist, but not part of the Autonomen scene, a larger part of
the population was affected by his murder than Conny's murder in
1989. The pressure on fascists increased. They were pushed entirely
out of downtown Goettingen, with some Nazi circles dissolving
entirely due to permanent political pressure and direct militant
actions. After the murder of Alexander Selchow, the Lower Saxony
government recognized that they had to do something. It had become
clear that not dealing with fascists was offical policy. In order
not to lose even more credibility in the public eye and to paint
themselves in antifascist colors, the department of the interior
led a deportation investigation against Polacek. As an Austrian,
Polacek was of course subject to the Auslaendergesetz (immigration
law). At first nothing concrete happened and the wave of
indignation calmed down. Further agitation came from the house in
Mackenrode. It was clear to everyone by the end of 1991, when still
nothing had been done, that the state would not do anything more.
A new round of militant actions by Autonomen Antifas began.
A large training weekend took place in the Mackenrode house
in October 1991. This meeting was object of a frontal attack by
less than 40 Autonomen. When the Nazis saw them coming, they
swarmed into the street. Most of the approximately 50 fascists,
all leading FAP activists, were in uniform and armed with
Molotov-cocktails and straightened out scythes. An intense street
fight broke out immediately. The Autonomen's advantages were that
surprise was on their side, that they attacked without hesitation,
and that some wore helmets and had sling shots. The helmets
provided protection against the stones and the steel balls shot
from the sling shots turned out to be quite effective. Because the
fascists were not wearing helmets, many of them were injured within
a short time. Each time they tried to advance the ones in front
were shot down. The intensity of the conflict can be seen in that
many of the Nazis had to be brought to the hospital in ambulances
because of their heavy head injuries. The local population also
took part in the action in that the Autonomen used stones from
their front yards as ammunition. Finally the determination of the
Autonomen settled the conflict. The Nazis were pushed back into the
house and the Autonomen retreated. The entire action lasted about
20 minutes. The police were just as surprised as the fascists.
Therefore the antifascists were able to retreat before the police
established any significant presence. The Autonomen simply drove
around a quickly set up police barricade. Not a single Antifa was
caught by the police on the scene and there were no injured
Antifas. Of the Nazis, 15 people were injured, some seriously. The
antifascist attack met with a favorable response. The Lower Saxony
government reacted politically by deporting Polacek to Austria in
January 1992. After the deportation of Polacek, Thorsten Heise took
over his function.
Thorsten Heise has become one of the leading neo-Nazis in the
BRD. In the recent past he has been the organizer of Nazi
provocation like the March in Fulda in August 1993. His party
colleagues are the ones who are openly spreading terror on the
streets. Some actions against Heise have already taken place. On
the way to work on August 12, 1992, he was approached by Autonomen
who battered him hospital-ripe. This action was timed so he would
be prevented in taking part in the Wunsiedel Nazi meeting that
year. There were many small attacks on Heise's house in 1993.
Nazi's cars parked at his house are also regularly burned. All of
this led to Hiese leaving his former residence in
Noerten-Hardenberg, a neighboring village to Goettingen, for
Northeim. He hoped to be able to agitate there without continuous
attacks from antifas. These plans will be thwarted with the demo
on June 4th. The goal is to isolate Heise and the FAP politically
and socially. Further, the demo will show him clearly that
resistance will be carried out on all levels, regardless of where
he lives.
Autonome Antifa (M)
2) Antifascist Given 2 Year Jail Sentence
On June 28, 1994, the trial against Wiesbaden antifascist
Gunther ended with a guilty verdict and a heavy sentence: 2 years
in prison without parole. Gunther was accused of involvement in a
January 1993 attack on members of the outlawed neo-nazi party
Deutsche Alternative (DA). During this action, a few fascists were
lightly injured and their cars damaged. Gunther was arrested at a
police roadblock and then held in preventive detention for five
months before being released on bail. Despite not having any
witnesses, the prosecution was able to use circumstancial evidence
to get the openly right-wing judge to hand down a conviction and
a stiff sentence. Gunther's defence lawyers are planning an appeal.
3) Judicial Inaction Against Neo-Nazis
If you're a right-wing extremist in Germany and you carry out
a violent attack against leftists or foreigners, chances are you'll
never go to jail. According to official figures recently released
by the German government, out of a total of 23,318 far-right
attacks, only 2191 resulted in court decisions. More than 16,000
cases were dropped before a decision could be rendered. Of these
racist attacks, 95 were murders, 1343 were cases of assault, and
at least 344 were arson attacks. (ND)
4) Police Inaction Against Neo-Nazis
On Saturday, July 9, more than 900 neo-nazis held a concert
and meeting in the East German town of Rudersdorf, 10km outside of
Berlin. The event was billed as a "guitar concert" by a well-known
far-right figure, Frank Rennicke. When the mayor of the town passed
by the hall where the event was to take place and realized what was
happening, he telephoned police officials. After a long delay, 100
police arrived on the scene, but they looked on passively and did
not intervene. During the concert, songs with outlawed racist and
fascist texts were sung, and literature from outlawed fascist
organizations was distributed. Uniformed members of the neo-nazi
FAP and NPD parties were also present. It is still unclear whether
the gathering was a regional or international event, but at least
carload of fascists from The Netherlands was spotted.
5) Police And Judicial Repression Against Anti-Fascists
More than two years after the death of neo-nazi leader Gerhard
Kaindl in an anti-fascist attack in Berlin, yet another Turkish
anti-fascist has been arrested and charged with murder. Border
police in the reactionary southern German province of Bayern
arrested a 25 year-old Turk in connection with the Kaindl attack
and have since transferred him to a prison in Berlin. The man
arrested was one of six people who went underground following the
wave of house-searches and arrests in November 1993. Three Turkish
and Kurdish anti-fascists - Fatma, Mehmet, and Abidin - were
arrested at that time and are due to go on trial on September 20.
6) One Year Probation For Holocaust Denier
A court in Mannheim recently handed down a one year probation
sentence against Holocaust denier and NPD neonazi leader Gunter
Deckert. Apart from the very mild sentence, severe criticism has
been voiced against the trial's right-wing judge. In sentencing
Deckert, the presiding judge stated that Deckert, who calls the
calculated slaughter of Jews in Nazi death camps like Auschwitz a
historical lie, had a "justified interest" in resisting "claims
that have been continually been raised against Germany as a result
of the Holocaust". Never in Germany's post-war history has a judge
made such a callous remark, almost trivializing Germany's slaughter
of more than 6 million Jews, Roma and Sinti, and others during
World War II. The head of Germany's Jewish community, Ignatz Bubis,
has stated that the judge's remark is very dangerous, because it
legitimizes and gives support to the growing far-right intellectual
movement in Germany. Bubis also once again called on the German
parliament to enact a new law making so-called "Auschwitz Lies"
criminal offences. Under present statues, neonazis like Deckert can
be indicted for preaching hatred against a population, but stating
that the Holocaust is a lie is not necessarily a criminal offence
in and of itself.
7) Not Another Bitburg! No Recognition Of The Neue Wache Memorial!
Bill Clinton, president of the United States, will be coming
to Berlin on the 12th of July on an official state visit. Since
the November 1993 inauguration of the Neue Wache "Central monument
for the victims of war and tyranny", it has become part of the
estabished protocol for state visitors to Berlin to lay a wreath
at the memorial. The Neue Wache memorial does not differentiate
between National Socialist aggressors and their victims. It is a
prominent representation of Germany's policy of rationalising and
suppressing the memory of the crimes committed under the Nazi
regime. A policy that Germany wants to see accepted
internationally. Bill Clinton will be the second head of state to
recognise the Neue Wache memorial; the first was the King of Norway
in April 1994.
On the 5th of May 1985, the 40th anniversary of the liberation
from fascism, Chancellor Kohl and the then U.S. president, Ronald
Reagan stood over the graves of SS-soldiers in Bitburg in a gesture
of reconciliation. Is the hypocrisy of Bitburg to be repeated on
Unter den Linden on the 12th of July 1994?
"Reverence and veneration for this 'memorial'? No! Never! We
will mourn, rage and pledge 'no pasaran': you won't get anywhere
with this, you advocates of a false reality! The real victims of
Hitler's Germany, of his offensive, of his dictatorship, will hold
out longer than these history re-writers under the Kohl
legislation." (Ralph Giordano, Survivor of the Holocaust in DAS
19.11.93)
A Monument To Militarism And Nationalism
From the very beginning the Neue Wache was a nationalistic
monument to honour the 'heroic sacrifices' of German men-at-arms
in times of political restoration. After the victory over Napoleon
it was erected to honour the Prussian military, and between 1818
and 1919 the Guard house for the monarchy was situated there.
Bourgeois revolutionaries were imprisoned there in 1848. The
mobilisation for the First World War was announced by telegraph
from the Neue Wache in 1914. In 1931 it became a memorial for the
'Fallen soldiers of the World War'. As such the Neue Wache already
represented the suppression and denial of responsibility for the
First World War. Under National Socialism the Neue Wache became the
'Monument of Heroic German Sacrifice'. On the 25th of February
1935, an article in the 'Volkischen Beobachter' read: "As the
delegation of troops stands at arms, the Fuhrer and his entourage
enter the Monument to lay a huge laurel wreath, which is carried
by two officers. The flags are lowered and the ceremory is
accompanied once again by the Song of the Good Comrade. While the
Furher is inside the 'Monument of Heroic German Sacrifice', the
crowd outside stands silent, transfixed, arms raised in the German
salute."
In the last days of the war the Neue Wache was badly damaged.
Instead of following the suggestion of the FDJ (East German youth
organisation) to finally tear it down, the GDR also used the
monument to cultivate a sense of national identity. In 1961 it
became the "Monument to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism".
"In the graves are urns containing the ashes of an unknown
German resistance-fighter and of an unknown German soldier, as well
as earth taken from nine concentration camps and nine battlefields
of the Second World War. The fact that these war-dead are placed
side-by-side here shows an attempt at all-inclusive reconciliation,
whereas other groups of victims are entirely neglected. In this
way the evoked veneration applies less to the memory of the killed
resistance-fighter. To me it looks like an attempt to free
survivors from their individual share of responsibility for the
atrocities of fascism." (Brigit Spies, from an unfinished chapter
in 'Irrgarten deutscher Geschichte 1993)
Since the 14th of November 1993, state representatives no
longer have to appear at some deserted graveyard to promote
national conciousness on the so-called National Day of Mourning.
They can now attend the Central Monument on Unter den Linden. On
two additional plaques different groups of victims and the history
of the building are documented. These plaques were placed as a
concession to critics of the Memorial, yet they both add to its
disgrace. On the first plaque the groups of victims are recorded
without any kind of order or distinction from each other, and the
aggressors are not even mentioned. On the second plaque, the one
regarding the history of the Neue Wache, National Socialism has
been left out completely. This is cast-iron proof of the policy to
suppress, rationalise and revise German history. The direction this
is going in is apparent in the plans of the Berlin Senate to
re-erect the statues of the Prussian commanders Scharnhorst and
Bulow in front of the Neue Wache.
>From Bitburg To The Neue Wache Memorial
Bitburg and the Neue Wache Memorial are two landmarks in the
attempt to cultivate a German national conciousness. In both cases
SS-thugs are given an official honouring and both cases reflect the
intention to rationalise the crimes committed under National
Socialism. "Whoever tries to appropriate German history from a
nationalist point of view will stumble over the fact of Auschwitz.
Attempts to fit the holocaust into history, to deny its singularity
reflect a yearning to be normal." (Dan Diner, 1986). Reagan's
appearance in Bitburg in 1985, which even caused disputes within
the conservative U.S. administration, was met with strong protests
in Germany and elsewhere. The fact that his programme also included
a visit to the former concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen was
critisized as unbearable: it was placing victims and perpetrators
on the same level.
At the time of Bitburg the objective was still to make the
Second World War appear to have been a normal war. In order to do
so certain facts had to be 'faded out': the mass-murder of German
and European Jews, which the military occupation of West and East
Europe made possible, and the obvious involvement of the German
army in these crimes. The gesture of reconciliation between Germany
and the USA, former enemies, now allies, was an attempt to
legitimise, in retrospect, the German army attacking the Soviet
Union, and to smuggle Germany onto the side of the 'victors'. The
Neue Wache memorial goes even further than that: it suppresses the
very fact that guilty Germans existed. It indiscriminately presents
all the dead as victims, and the groups that were persecuted by the
Nazi regime are only referred to in order to be able to name their
persecuters beside them as victims. In Bitburg the only way to
achieve the common goal of patching up 'the broken relationship to
the nation' was by conveniently forgetting the genocide victims.
Since then the same goal seems to have become achievable through
the Neue Wache memorial: the murderers and executioners, the German
soldiers and those that died in allied bombings are all put on the
same level as the true victims. "Not even the dead can escape the
enemy, when the enemy is winning. And this enemy has never stopped
winning." (from: W. Benjamin: 'Uber den Begriff der Geschichte',
6th thesis)
'Normal' In Germany
Both Bitburg and the Neue Wache represent Germany's wish to
be considered, at long last, as a normal country. In order to
achieve this, it seems, the memory of the millions of holocaust
victims, the memory of the victims of National Socialism on the
whole, has to be suppressed. And where this German cultivation of
national conciousness, this state of 'normality' obviously leads
to again and again can be read every day in the papers: five years
after the two Germanies became reunified names like Hoyerswerda,
Mannheim, Rostock and Magdeburg remind us of recent pogroms, towns
like Molln and Solingen stand for murderous racist attacks, the
concentration camp memorials at Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen have
been attacked by arsonists and in Lubeck a synagogue was set alight
for the first time since 1938. There have been tens of thousands
of racist attacks, over eighty people murdered by German
neo-fascists, and since 1990 more Jewish cemetaries have been
desecrated than in the years preceding the coming to power of the
"National Socialist German Workers' Party". In the process of
building a German nation, racism and antisemitism are apparently,
once again, the decisive and identity-forming factors.
While we watch the whole of society shifting to the right, the
government's policy of foreigner-exclusion and discrimination
becomes apparent too. The ruling coalition-party, in agreement with
the largest opposition party, have de facto abolished the
constitutional right to asylum, which is exactly what the
brown-shirt arsonists wanted. Through 'bilateral agreements',
Germany has forced out Roma and Sinti, who have never even been
compensated for their suffering under the Nazis, to countries where
pogroms, hunger and war await them. We demand that a stop be put
to these deportations and that Sinti and Roma and all other
'forgotten' victims of Natioanal Socialism be compensated! While
the Auschwitz memorial stands deteriorating because the government
will allow no financial support, the concentration camp memorials
within Germany are being significantly remodelled. From now on
these memorials are to be not only for the victims of the
concentration camps, but also for the inmates of the post-war
internment camps, most of whom were Nazis. We demand that the
government supply unconditionally all materials needed for the
upkeep of the Auschwitz memorial and the other concentration camp
memorials. We demand an immediate stop to the so-called
'remodelling'! A judge in the highest court recently ruled that an
open denial of Auschwitz is not necessarily 'incitement of the
people', it is only seen as such when the speaker makes direct
references to the Nazi ideology. The very same Chancellor who was
responsible for Bitburg (Helmut Kohl) was also heard declaring that
he would not let the Jewish World Congress talk him into
'reunification'.
The link between history revisionism and racist ideology is
further emphasised in the politics of the new president, Roman
Herzog. During his election campaign, after having been present at
the opening ceremony for the Neue Wache on the 14th of November
1993 , he came out with the statement that the splitting up of
Germany at the Elbe had come about by 'coincidence'. He also
announced his rejection of double citizenship immigrants living in
Germany.
12th Of July: Clinton At The Neue Wache Memorial?
Bill Clinton is conciously trying to follow in Ronald Reagan's
footsteps during his state visit to Germany. Like his predecessor
he plans to deliver a speech at the Brandenburger Gate. By laying
a wreath at the Neue Wache memorial he would be following the
example of Reagan's 'reconciliation' at Bitburg. The Neue Wache
memorial symbolises history revisionism and the 'closed-book'
policy. Bill Clinton must be made to realise that by recognising
the monument he would be paying his respects to a nation that is
guilty. A nation that is currently plagued with racism and
antisemitism, that is beginning to conduct its foreign politics and
to take part in world politics without the burden of its fascist
past.
Any form of recognition of the Neue Wache is disgraceful - it
is showing derision for the victims of National Socialism. That is
why we ask Clinton not to lay his wreath there. The Neue Wache is
no place to pay one's respect to the victims of Nazi Germany, its
offensive and its system of destruction, nor to those who died
fighting National Socialism. We demand that Clinton does not visit
the Neue Wache, as this would be dishonouring the victims and
honouring the fascist perpetrators. Instead we want him to make a
clear gesture by visiting a concentration camp memorial, like the
one at Ravensbruck. We don't want a repetition of Bitburg on Unter
den Linden! German war criminals are not victims!
Act up! Protest against Bill Clinton's planned visit of the Neue
Wache! Demonstrate, for example, outside the American Embassy in
Bonn or the Embassy office in Berlin.
American Embassy in Bonn: Tel: 0049 228 3391 Fax: 0049 228 33 91
2663
American Embassy Berlin Office: Tel: 0049 30 2385174 Fax: 0049 30
2386214
Please send a copy of your protest letter to:
AntifaschistInnen gegen die Neue Wache (Antifascists against the
Neue Wache)
c/o Antirassistische Initiative
Yorckstrasse 59, HH
10965 Berlin
Germany
Infoshop Neue Wache/Clinton
Tel: 0049 30 786 59 17 (only on Fridays 18.00-20.00)
Fax: 0049 30 786 99 84
Some Of The Protests Against The Neue Wache:
"We find it unthinkable that those victims who were killed by the
Nazi regime and its gruesome death-machinery just because they were
Jews are to be honoured in the same breath as the victims of the
World Wars, some of whom operated this machinery."
- Resolution of the representative committee of the Jewish
Community in Berlin.
On the 9th of November, 1993, the 55th anniversary of the
November pogroms against the Jews, the Neue Wache was occupied by
a group of anti-fascist activists, who chained themselves to the
entrance of the memorial. Two hours later an order was issued by
the ministry of the interior and they were brutally removed by the
police.
"For us Auschwitz is and will remain the National Memorial for the
Federal Republic of Germany".
- Gisela Weise, Pax Christi, Gruppe Hamburg
"Just as the murderers and arsonists of today are being
sympathetically depicted as victims of circumstance, namely as
victims of 'the flood of asylum-seekers' or of 'foreign
infiltration' or of 'the loss of identity', so too will the
memorial ceremony at this location create a memory in which the
aggressors of yesterday are victims, a memory which isn#t a real
memory any more."
- Eike Geisel
"An affront to remembrance."
- Ralph Giorando
"We regard it as a disgraceful mockery of the millions murdered by
Nazi fascism".
- Peter Gingold, spokesperson of the VVN/BdA
On the 14th of November 1993 about 800 anti-fascist activists
demonstrated in an alternative memorial-procession, which had been
called for by the 'Aktive Museum'. Extensive security measures had
been taken to suppress criticism and protests at the official
opening. The numerous activists did not let themselves be
intimidated by the presence of 800 police officers in front of the
Neue Wache. All protest-banners were violently torn down and
demonstrators were beaten as the international press looked on.
Nevertheless, the protesting cries of 'German aggressors are not
victims' could not be silenced.
"In the history books of the world, Germany is and will always be
remembered as the country of aggressors, the nation responsible for
two world wars and for factory-like genocide. We cannot expect a
memorial for victims to help us win the favour of the very nations
that were invaded and conquered by Germany."
- Christine Fischer-Defoy, Aktives Museum
Two days after the initiation-ceremony a demonstration of
about 1000 high-school students stopped in front of the Neue Wache
and protested. The Neue Wache, which had only just been opened to
the general public on that day, was closed again in a panic. Even
during the state visit by the Norwegian King in April 1994, a visit
announced at very short notice, spontaneous protests took place in
front of the Norwegian General Consulate in Berlin, as well as
during the wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial.
"Is this how they want to 'step out of the shadow of
Auschwitz', so they can take part in world politics without the
burden of the fascist past?"
- Wolfgang Wipperman, Historian
8) Police Raids In Goettingen
Early on Tuesday morning, July 5, police units raided the
homes of 15 anti-fascists in the German city of Goettingen, as well
as the AStA student center at Goettingen's university and the
leftist bookstore "Rote Strasse". During the raid, leaflets,
brochures, address lists, computer disks, and personal materials
were seized by the police. At least 12 people were taken into
temporary custody.
During the raid on the AStA student center, demonstrators
clashed with special police units who used clubs to force their way
into the center. Later that afternoon, several hundred people
marched through Goettingen's city center to protest the police
raids and to denounce this latest criminalization of the
anti-fascist movement.
The police raids were aimed at the organization "Autonome
Antifa (M)", allegedly in an attempt to seize evidence proving that
Autonome Antifa (M) are in the process of forming a terrorist
organization, as well as operating in contact with and in support
of the Red Army Fraction (RAF). In reality, police and government
authorities are trying to further criminalize Autonome Antifa (M),
who have staged several successful local and regional informational
events, actions, and demonstrations, often in coalitions with trade
unions and Greens. These ties to segments of the left outside of
the left-radical autonomist spectrum have remained fruitful,
despite the fact that Autonome Antifa (M) were made illegal in 1991
under Paragraph 129a, a German law which makes membership in and
support for so-called "terrorist" organizations a jailable offence.
This criminalization followed a series of more than 50 small
bombings, fire-bombings, and antifa attacks in Goettingen.
Autonome Antifa (M) has been a significant organization within
the autonomist anti-fascist movement in Germany, and helped to
found the AA/BO (Anti-fascist Action/Nation-wide Organization). It
is clear that these police raids are just another attempt by police
and government authorities to isolate and criminalize a very
effective and militant anti-fascist organization.
A demonstration against police terror and in support of
Autonome Antifa (M) will be held in Goettingen on Thursday, July
7.
9) Goettingen Antifa Demo
Stop State Terrorism!
Strike Back!
On Saturday, July 16, more than 3500 people marched in an
antifascist demonstration in the German city of Goettingen in
support of the criminalized organization Autonome Antifa (M). The
demo was held to protest police attacks against antifascists,
including the July 5 police raids on 17 homes, an infoshop, the
AStA student center, and two printing presses. A large, masked
black bloc was at the head of Saturday's demo, and after repeated
police provocations, a struggle broke out near the heavily guarded
justice department building, during which seven cops were injured.
In addition to left-wing autonomists, Greens and social democrats
also supported the Goettingen demo. Later Saturday night, a
right-wing student office was attacked by masked antifascists, as
were three police cars. Police reported one arrest.
Despite the broad political support behind Autonome Antifa
(M), police criminalization efforts against the group are
continuing. On Monday, July 18, police stated that they would be
filing charges against the organizers of Saturday's antifa demo in
Goettingen. Despite the fact that the demo was not registered with
police - and was, therefore, technically illegal - more than 30
left-wing, liberal, and citizens' groups in Gottingen supported
the action. (ND)
Increase Anti-Fscist Solidarity!
Stop The Criminalization Of The Anti-Fascist Resistance!
10) Autonome Antifa (M) Statement
Stop State Terrorism! Fight Back!
On Tuesday, July 5, 1994, special forces and other police
units from the federal, state and Gottingen police, supported by
local police from neighbouring regions simultaneously stormed the
homes of 17 people. The searches were carried out against members
of the Autonome Antifa (M). All of the affected people were
fingerprinted and photographed after the searches.
Rooms in the student parliament building of the University of
Gottingen, a bookstore, workplaces of the affected persons, and
homes of their family members were also searched. On the following
day, a printer and a former work place of a member of the Autonome
Antifa (M) were searched.
The searches were carried out illegally in part. Doors were
broken open, a window smashed and private rooms of people
unassociated with the investigation searched. Many of the police
officers were wearing bullet-proof vests and had removed the safety
on their guns.
Quite a bit of material was seized in the raids, including
several computers, sacks full of files and notebooks, and personal
items. This action from the police represents one of the largest
blows to autonomist antifascism in Germany to date!
Approximately 1000 people tooks part in a protest and
solidarity demonstration on Thursday, July 7, 1994, under the
motto: State terrorism has continuity! Away with the ban of the PKK
and other Kurdish organizations! No criminalization of autonomist
resistance! The demonstration had been called to protest the
political murder of Halim Deren, a Kurdish boy of 16 who was shot
to death by a plain-clothesed police officer in Hannover on the
night of July 1, 1994 while putting up a poster of a banned Kurdish
organization. It was also a solidarity demonstration with the
Autonome Antifa (M).
A further solidarity demonstration took place on Saturday,
July 16, 1994. Approximately 4000 people travelled from all over
Germany to protest the attempt to criminalize autonomist
resistance. The massive police presence at the demosntration was
met with paint bombs, fire crackers and stones, a strong signal
that this attack from the state will not go unchallenged!
Investigation according to paragraph 129a (propaganda for,
support of, or membership in a terrorist organization) have been
running in Gottingen since the fall of 1991.
The federal attorney, von Stahl, asserted at the time that
investigation "against not yet knowm persons from the autonomist
scene in Gottingen on suspicion of being members in a terrorist
organization" were being started (GT 24.12.1991) in relation to 52
attacks in the last ten years. These attacks were a hodge-podge mix
in terms of goals, tactics, technical procedure and content. A
patient in the Gottingen psychiatric hospital was found to have
been responsible for several of these attacks. This did not have
any effect on the investigations, however. It became clear
relatively quickly that the investigations were being focussed on
autonomist antifascists.
The state police declared publicly in June 1992 that the
investigations according to paragraph 129a were also directed
against the Autonome Antifa (M). The state police (LKA) has aimed
its investigation at a group that works in a legal and public realm
to establish antifascism as an important force in southern Lower
Saxony. The strategy of the police consists, among other things,
of collecting press releases of the Autonome Antifa (M) to gather
fingerprints, confiscating rental contracts for lecture rooms and
vans used in demonstrations, observing group meetings and private
homes, and tapping telephones.
Grounds For The Searches
The Autonome Antifa (M) was defined as a "criminal
organization according to paragraph 129" in the search warrants and
July 5th press release from the Celle police department. The group
is also charged with making "propaganda for the terrorist
organization RAF (Red Army Fraction) and having close contact on
several levels to members of the RAF", charges that fall under
paragraph 129a.
There is no talk of the original 52 attacks that were
supposedly being investigated. They were simply a means for the
state police to impose special conditions on the investigation,
allowing them to use methods such as phone-tapping and
observations. The crime that Autonome Antifa (M) is charged with
in order to define it as a "criminal organization" according to
police is "violation of the assembly law". This is a reference to
the "black block, comprised of up to 800 people... the impression
of building a private army... and violation of the ban on
uniforms."
The following quotation from a letter from the state attorney
in Celle to the city attorney in Gottingen from March 9, 1994, is
worth noting in connection with these events. The letter refers to
the militant action against the fascist training centre of the FAP
(Freiheitliche Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands) and its functionary
Karl Polacek: "The previous considerations and evaluations still
support the suspicion that the action in Mackenrode was planned and
carried out by the AA(M). The fact that the AA(M) neither called
nor claimed responsibility for the action under its name, however,
speaks against this conclusion. To date no one from the "core
group" of the AA(M) can be brought in connection to this act. That
further investigations in this direction would bring results is not
clear. It is also unprobable that searches of the rooms of members
of the AA(M) would bring any further clarity in this matter."
Nevertheless, the search warants for the raids on July 5, 1994 were
issued two days later by the state attorney in Celle.
The Political Goal
The political goal of the investigation is the examination and
criminalization of the Autonome Antifa (M) and its politics. The
stated goal was to "collect evidence of the goals, strategy and
tactics of this group as well as the individual positions of its
members within the group."
The state attorney's office confirmed the political assessment
of the Autonome Antifa (M) in its own press release. The
criminalization is aimed above all against its successful
antifascist public and coalition politics. The coalition
demonstrations against the fascist training centre in Mackenrode
in 1988, Adelebsen in 1993, and Northeim in 1994 called by
autonomists, labour unions, citizens' initiatives, the Greens and
the SPD (Social Democrats) have become an important part of
antifascist culture in Gottingen and southern Lower Saxony. Through
these demonstrations and other actions, antifascist politics have
become accepted and anchored in wide circles in the population.
Politically, this attack from the state is logical. The
political work of a group that names connections between fascism
and imperialism, fights against them and that is successful in its
public and coalition work clearly stands in opposition to the
interests of the state.
Antifa And The RAF
In the last several years, the state has continuously
attempted to sell the idea to the public that the Autonome Antifa
(M) is the legal arm of the RAF. Since at least the early 1980's,
the state has attempted to link political movements like the peace
or anti-nuclear movements with the RAF in order to more heavily
criminalize them.
This is a political, not juridicial tactic. The assertions
like the following from the Lower Saxony interior minister are
absurd. He argued in the 1994 Defense of the Constitution Report
that the Bahncard (discount card for train travel) found in the
backpack of Birgit Hogefeld, the RAF member arrested in Bad Kleinen
in June 1994, had been bought in Gottingen and thus, logically, the
autonomist antifascists must be supporting the RAF.
This line appeared again in the state attorney's press release
regarding the searches in Gottingen: the Autonome Antifa (M) is
"...a group in the anti-imperialist spectrum. Therefore, the
Autonome Antifa (M) maintains on several levels close contact to
members of the terrorist RAF." This pitiful, small-minded logic has
a single goal: to descredit, isolate and finally to destroy
autonomist antifascist resistance. The state is attempting to
prevent the organization and establishment of a wide antifascist
movement in wide circles in society.
The State Apparatus And Nazis
While investigations have been being carried out against anti-
fascists since Fall 1991, fascists - like the FAP functionary
Thorsten Heise - have been able to increase their activities, and
that under the noses of the police. Furthermore, the state police
has taken over the work of the "anti-Antifa."
The state police used, for example, the possibility in 1993
to inform the fascist Hans-Michael Fiedler about the demonstration
being planned against him and his training centre in Adelebsen on
March 20, 1993. Fiedler is known as one of the founders of the
"anti-Antifa." (Documentation to the Demonstration in
Adelebsen/Gottingen, Autonome Antifa (M), May 1993).
The city-wide known Nazi thug, Bode, was visited by the state
police in 1993 and questioned for information on the autonomist
scene. He was called to press charges against an antifascist in
relation to a fight that he initiated in 1990. During the trial on
January 13, 1994, in Gottingen, two witnesses - also Nazis -
blabbered openly about the visit from the state police. They also
admitted to having attacked the antifascist, who was declared not
guilty (Gottinger Drucksache, January 21, 1994).
The Lower Saxony FAP functionary Thorsten Heise was taken into
protective custody shortly before the demonstration against him in
June 1994 in Northeim and then released shortly before the anti-
Antifa raids in Gottingen (FR, July 5, 1994).
The Struggle Continues!
The state attorney's office reported in the press in 1992 that
if someone openly appeared as a member of the Autonome Antifa (M)
at a lecture or other event, she or he would be arrested for being
a member of a terrorist organization immediately. The Autonome
Antifa (M) has not let itself be intimidated by this threat and has
organized dozens of talks since then. Even after the searches it
will continue with its strategy of doing open antifascist work. At
the moment, the Autonome Antifa (M) is in the process of
reorganizing its technical and material infrastructure and will in
no case do the state the favor of going underground or disappearing
in political listlessness. The Autonome Antifa (M) will continue
to oppose the criminalization offensively and openly. If the state
wants to criminalize the Autonome Antifa (M), it will have to do
that itself and in all publicity.
The question is if the state doctrine of "a strong doctrine"
will prevail and every emancipatorial impulse is destroyed or if
it is possible to fight back against this attack. Everyone, for
whom antifascism is not simply an empty word, is called to stand
together!
Against The Splitting Of The Antifascist Resistance!
No Criminalization Of Autonomist Antifascism!
Stop The Proceedings Against Antifascists!
Immediate Return Of The Confiscated Material!
Up With Antifascist Solidarity!
Gottingen, July 20, 1994
Autonome Antifa (M) organized in the Antifascist Action/Nation-Wide
Organization (AA/BO)
11) Declaration To The Press
This declaration concerns the occupation of the exhibition
concerning the "German Resistance during the period of National
Socialism" in the 'Bendlerblock' in Berlin on July, 19th, 1994.
The 20th of July, 1994 is the 50th anniversary of
Stauffenberg's assassination attempt on Hitler.
As in the past there will be celebrations and speeches
praising 'German resistance against Hitler's savagery; the morality
and the courage of the "men and woman of July the 20th" are going
to be celebrated. Despite the crushing of the workers' movement,
the abolition of the parliamentary democracy, despite the 'Nurnberg
race laws' and the systematic discrimination and persecution of the
Jewish population as well as other other sections of the
population; despite the annexation of the neighbouring countries
by the "Pan German Reich", despite the "Reichspogromnacht" in 1938
despite the invasion of Poland, which triggered off the second
world war, as well as the annexation of large parts of Europe,
despite the invasion of the Soviet Union by the "Reichswehr",
despite the "Wannsee conference" and despite the beginning of the
systematic killing of more than 6 million Jews there had hardly
been any effective resistance against more than 11 years of
continuing national socialist rule before the 20th of July, 1944.
Most of the later conspirators of the 20th of July did their
best at fulfilling their duties in the "Volksgemeinschaft"
(national community), supporting Pan German interests during the
national socialist rule before some national conservative groups
formed an opposition to the particular foreign, military and
economic policies of the Hitler government. These leading
"Wehrmacht" officers, NS-bureaucrats and civilians of the upper
middle class elites, who had once helped the nazis to seize power,
started accusing the nazis of betraying the original aims of the
"national uprising". The motives of the "20th of July" did not
include resistance against the idea of national socialism as such;
they were concerned with the idea of getting rid of Hitler and his
corrupt regime - 'in support of Germany'. With the defeat at
Stalingrad and the advance of the Red Army in the East and because
of the allied bombs, which showed the german "Volksgemeinschaft"
that their own situation did not look promising at all, and because
of the arrival of the allied forces in the Normandy the pressure
on the conspirators to take action at last increased after ideas
of a "coup d'etat" had been dismissed on several occasions before.
At this stage it was obvious that Germany was militarily
defeated. Now "Germany's arch enemy" (Hitler and his corrupt
regime) had to be gotten rid of in order to save the German nation
from complete destruction.
As far as patriotic motives were concerned the "20th of July"
was a defeat. Germany was occupied and divided and because of the
hegemony of the Allies, Stauffenberg's last recorded words "Long
live holy Germany", remained a national utopian dream for nearly
50 years. This means that the "patriots of the 20th of July" had
an important function as they morally legitimized the continued
existence of a German nation and they also served as a means of
playing down German guilt complexes; their ideas however remained
politically isolated in the consciousness of the postwar Federal
Republic of Germany.
With the re-unification and the obtaining of complete
sovereignty the national utopian dream of a person like
Stauffenberg has been gaining more acceptance. The celebrations of
the 50th anniversary of the "20th of July" assassination attempt
are taking place at the same time as the Allied Forces are
retreating.
Now it is no longer necessary to remember a defeat but the
"20th of July" is a matter of a celebration of a national state
with hegemonic desires. This year's celebrations are taking place
under the influence of a conversion in Germany.
The "20th of July 1994" stands for several developments: on
the one hand the re-evaluation of the role of the 'Bundeswehr' and
its 'missions' in the world is being considered.
The '20th of July' provides a morally legitimate link between
the tradition of the "Wehrmacht" - even during the time of national
socialist rule - and the present.
On the other hand Germany is looking for an option of a
calculable, "legally correct" system which takes up the 'real' aims
of the national socialist idea which is thought to have been
'betrayed' by Hitler. The current development has to be described
as "Re-nationalsozialisierung" (Re-nationalsocialization). This is
not a matter of precisely copying the contents of the strategies
of the "Third Reich" but it is rather a matter of the determination
of the real 'modern' in National Socialism with regard to today's
national requirements.
The so-called 'Wertedebatte' (value debate) and other debates
which are being carried on by the ruling classes have cleary shown
that the different German elites are by no means prepared to agree
to restrictions to the conditions of the utilization of capital or
its ability to act on a national basis.
The increasing competition among the power blocs - USA, Japan
and Europe - and the competition within Europe since the decline
of Socialism has turned the defence and the improvement of the
location Germany into an increasingly important national task;
'particular interests' and the 'egoism' of the political parties
have to be overcame. With the fulfilmemt of a growing
responsibility'. Germany's foreign policies are cautious but
clearly directed to carning through hegemonic interest in Eastern
Europe.
Whether a parliamentary democracy is useful for a solution of
these tasks is regarded in an increasingly critical way by the
elites.
Ideologically, on the whole, the German population has been
made to submit to the national interests. With the "autumn pogroms"
in 1992, which led to the abolition of the right to asylum and the
'Lichterketten' (chains of light) around X-mas time, with which
some of the racism which interfered with national interests was
taken back the German population showed a will to follow the
strategy of escalation and de-escalation. Now the elites know that
they can rely on their nation whenever new steps in a development
in which the German nation shall be led according to the insights
of the business management point of view, the ideas of the "20th
July", provide an appropriate starting-point with regard to the
"national uprising" and a cautious realization of a great power
status, an authoritarian state and economic liberalism,
"Volksgemeinschaft" and the rule of an elite, idealistic German
morality and antisemitism as well as a racist, anti-communist
character, now that the discussion of the successful aspects of
national socialism, with the regard to the national development,
has become socially acceptable again.
"The 20th of July 1944" is an ideal object for identification
for something which is currently being prepared in Germany - the
3rd - and this time more considerately realized - "big throw".
In this sense we think that the celebrations on the 20th of
July, 1994, here in the Bendlerblock are celebrations for a "new
Reich". Chancellor Kohl and Rhe, the minister of defence, are
up-dating Stauffenbergs fight for a "new Reich" with this year's
celebrations of the 50th anniversary of this assassination attempt.
We would like to draw people's attention to this development
with our occupation of the museum in the "Bendlerblock". We want
to show our opposition to an event - the 20th of July celebration,
1994 - which supports the development which has been described
above.
More informations available at the Bendlerblock museum,
Berlin, during the occupation!
No More Germany!
Anti-National Groups
(From: Antirassistische Initiative)
12) Nazi Attacks In East Germany
On the weekend of July 22-24, 1994, a number of small but
organized right-wing attacks were carried out in several East
German cities. In the most serious incident, a group of 22
skinheads attacked the former concentration camp Buchenwald. After
shouting Nazi slogans and making several Hitler salutes, the
fascists attacked a women employee at the memorial site and
threatened to burn her. The fascists then smashed several windows
before dispersing. In Magdeburg, the site of a major fascist riot
against foreigners on May 12th, a small group of fascists marched
through the city center singing Nazi songs and shouting slogans.
The police took 7 fascists into temporary custody. In the East
Berlin section of Adlershof, a group of more than 70 fascists, led
by a well-organized and heavily-armed cadre of Blood and Honour
Skins, stormed a gothic music festival looking for antifascists.
Later that night, a group of antifascists located the bar where the
fascists had gathered after storming the concert. Fascists with
baseball bats and metal rods attacked the carload of antifascists
and then smashed the windows of the Adlershof train station while
shouting fascist slogans. All the fascists then dispersed before
police arrived. Also in several small cities in the province of
Brandenburg, such as Havelland, Schmolln, and Ruhlsdorf, police
reported organized fascist provocations.
13) More Right-Wing Violence In Germany
On the weekend of July 29-31, several more small but organized
attacks by neonazis and skinheads were carried out in small towns
across Germany. In the East German town of Doberlug-Kirchhain,
30-40 fascists armed with knives and baseball bats proceeded from
a camping site into town. There, the group grew in size to close
to 300. When police arrived, the fascists started rioting. In the
provinces of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, fascists in several
different locations attacked campers and eldery persons and
destroyed at least one Turkish restaurant. In Rostock, an Indian
man was attacked by fascists wielding baseball bats and shouting
Nazi slogans. The man was hospitalized, and his car demolished. In
Buchfart near Weimar, police raided a campsite where the far-right
group Viking Youth were holding paramilitary exercises. 10 fascists
were taken into temporary custody, but were soon released. In the
town of Karlstadt, town officials granted a permit to the neonazi
NPD party to hold a rally protesting the construction of a mosque
in the town. As 25 fascists shouted anti-Arab slogans, police
attacked a counter-demonstration of 100 people.
In this latest series of far-right attacks carried out over
the past weekend, several people were hospitalized, and yet no
fascists are in jail. And most of the events won't even show up in
statistics on right-wing political violence. According to police,
most of these actions were "disturbances involving intoxicated
citizens", not organized acts of neonazi violence.
14) 10 Berlin Cops Arrested
On Thurdsday, August 18, 10 police officers in the Kreuzberg
section of Berlin were arrested and their homes and offices were
searched. Illegal weapons and untaxed cigarettes, stolen from
Vietnamese cigarette dealers, were confiscated. Police officials
would not comment on the reason for the arrests, but they did state
that the arrested officers' entire 20-person police unit had been
dissolved and its officers reassigned to other posts. It is
believed that the arrested officers, who have since been released
from police custody, will be charged with, among other things,
beating and mishandling Vietnamese arrestees.
Berlin police were criticized for human rights violations
against foreigners by Amnesty International in that organization's
latest annual report. In recent months, a police scandal has
developed in Berlin involving police abuse against Vietnamese
immigrants. In many instances, police arrest Vietnamese people, who
sell smuggled untaxed cigarettes in order to make a living, beat
them in custody, and then re-sell the confiscated cigarettes
themselves. On May 17, 2 officers in Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen were
given suspended 2-year sentences for mishandling Vietnamese and
re-selling cigarettes worth at least 100,000 DM. In Bernau, just
north of Berlin, 7 cops were suspended from duty for torturing
Vietnamese arrestees. And in the Berlin districts of Pankow,
Weissensee, Friedrichshain, and Marzahn, 51 cops are presently
under investigation for mishandling Vietnamese.
It is unclear, however, whether judicial action against racist
cops will do any good. For one thing, many Vietnamese are unwilling
to give witness testimony against the cops in trial, because to do
so they would have to admit involvement in the selling of untaxed
cigarettes, a crime which could result in their deportation out of
Germany and back to Vietnam. Refugee solidarity groups are
attempting to work out a form of amnesty for the Vietnamese, so
that they can testify without fear of deportation.
And besides, even when police racism and fascism is proven
clearly in the courts, little is done. On Wednesday, August 17, a
cop in Berlin was convicted of inciting hatred for exclaiming at
his workplace: "We have enough weapons to wipe the Jews off the
face of the earth!" The cop was fined 400 DM.
15) German Cop Jailed For Racist Assault
A 24 year-old policeman in the East German city of Leipzig
was sentenced on Monday, August 22, to serve 3 years and 9 months
in prison after he was convicted of assualt and robbery. The
officer, Ronny K., had severely beaten several Vietnamese
aslyum-seekers who had been arrested for selling untaxed
cigarettes. The officers then took the confiscated cigarettes and
sold them himself. Another three cops were given suspended
sentences. The jailing of officer Ronny K. is the first time that
a German cop has been jailed for assaulting Vietnamese immigrants.
At least 51 similar police brutality cases involving Vietnamese
immigrants and asylum-seekers are still under investigation.
16) August 13-21: German Fascist Mobilization Fails
On August 17, 1987, Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess hung himself
in his cell in the war criminals prison in Berlin-Spandau. Ever
since then, August 17 has been a day of fascist mobilizations in
Germany. In 1991 and 1992, fascist marches numbered more than 2000
people. In 1993, despite a ban on all Hess memorial activities,
more than 500 fascists from across Europe marched through the city
of Fulda and received world-wide media attention. Police forces did
not move in to break up the march, instead they focussed their
energy on detaining anti-fascists on the roads and highways leading
to Fulda. In 1994, the fascists hoped to build on their past
successes by organizing a "national action week" from August 13-21.
The main organizers of this mobilization were Christian Worch
(NL) from Hamburg, Ewald Althans (AVO) in Munich in Munich, Norbert
Weidner (FAP) in Bonn, and Arnulf Priem (GdNF) in Berlin. The
fascists, however, failed miserably.
The fascist mobilization tactic was to file permits for
demonstrations in as many cities as possible, with the hope that
one or more would slip past the authorities and not be banned. When
this approach failed, however, the fascists decided to try a demo
across the border. On Saturday, August 13, around 100 German
neo-nazis tried to hold a rally in front of the German embassy in
Luxemburg. Police moved in almost immediately. The only media
pictures this year were the faces of surpirsed nazis, who are never
beaten by German cops, getting rushed by police. Within a few
minutes, dozens of nazis were handcuffed on the ground and the
"Skinheads march for Rudolf Hess" banner and the neo-nazi FAP party
placards were tossed into the garbage.
Determined to avoid yet another international media scandal,
German police were out in full force on the weekend of August 13.
In addition to the 100 arrests in Luxemburg, another 250 fascists
were arrested at police roadblocks across Germany. Stockpiles of
weapons and NS propaganda were seized. On Saturday, August 20,
police made another two dozen arrests as fascists tried once more
to mobilize. In the end, however, their national week of action was
a total failure.
In addition to thousands of police, thousands of anti-fascists
across Germany were also mobilized from August 13-21 in a
decentralized campaign called "Aktion '94". The campaign was
organized by the national organization Anti-Fascist Action (AA/BO)
and was supported by several local groups as well as the socialist
political party PDS. The goal of the campaign was to organize
several regional anti-fascist events in order to thwart any fascist
attempts to mobilize. In Bonn, 300 people demonstrated near the
home of FAP leader Norbert Weidner. Riot police prevented
demonstrators from reaching Weidner's home. Weidner himself was
busy getting himself arrested in Luxemburg. In Leipzig, close to
1000 people took part in an anti-fascist demonstration through the
city's center. In Bremen, police attacked an anti-fascist
information stand and made two dozen arrests. The reason: if all
nazis demos were banned for that day, then all antifa demos must
likewise be stopped. There were demonstrations in several other
cities as well, and small blockades of fascist structres in Hamburg
and Frankfurt.
The biggest Aktion '94 mobilization took place in Berlin,
where anti-fascists targeted the home of Arnulf Winfried Priem, one
of the key organizers in Germany's nation-wide fascist movement
with a long history of far-right activity. Priem was jailed for
fascist activity in the DDR in 1965, but he was considered a
"political prisoner" by the West German government, who bought his
freedom and allowed him to settle in West Berlin. In Berlin, Priem
quickly became active in fascist organizing with the NSDAP/AO, and
he developed close ties with American Gary "Gerhard" Lauck. More
recently, Priem has been active in several now-banned fascist
parties (DA, NF, NA etc.), and is a key figure within the fascist
organization GdNF. What's more, despite having an arrest record for
fascist political activity, Priem is a liscenced gun-owner and he
regularly offers weapons training for young fascists. Priem was
also sighted in Vienna in December 1993, when a series of
letterbombings were carried out by neo-nazis in Austria. Priem is
known to have close ties to those persons arrested in connection
with the letterbombings.
According to the AA/BO, it is important to point out that
far-right violence isn't just the work of a "brown-shirt mob", but
rather that there are important individual leaders behind fascist
terror activity. One such leader is Arnulf Priem, who lives at
Osloerstrasse 15 in Berlin-Wedding. In an attempt to expose Priem
to the media, and to his surrounding community, a demonstration was
organized on Saturday, August 13, which was supposed to end at
Priem's house. A court order, however, banned this section of the
demo route. More than 1000 people took part in the demonstration,
which was accompanied by several hundred riot police. Two water
cannons blocked the street leading to Priem's house, and at least
six anti-fascists were arrested, and a few others injured, in a
scuffle which broke out as demonstrators tried to move past the
police roadblock. The police presence, however, was too
overwhelming, and the demo had to stop short of its goal.
Despite the fact that he had the protection of several hundred
Berlin riot police, Priem and two dozen young neo-nazis gathered
on the roof of his house armed with slingshots and molotov
cocktails. After a TV cameraman was hit in the head with a
slingshot blast, police stormed the house and arrested Priem and
24 other fascists. Priem is now being charged with "building an
armed gang".
Considering the fact that Priem has lived for years in safety
and security, with the police turning a blind eye to his fascist
activity, it is largely due to this recent anti-fascist
mobilization against Priem that action has finally been taken
against him. This tactic has been successful elsewhere as well. In
Northeim near Goettingen, the group Autonome Antifa (M) organized
a demo of close to 3000 people outside the home of FAP leader
Thorsten Heise in June of this year. Heise was the main organizer
of the 1993 Rudolf Hess march in Fulda, and he has had an uncanny
ability to be involved in violent fascist activity without getting
arrested. Three days before the Goettingen demo, however, he was
arrested and taken into police custody after information about him
became widely spread in the media and in the community where he
lived.
But the goal of Aktion '94 is not, of course, to call for more
police action against nazis. The idea is to expose fascist
structures to both the general public and media, but also to the
left-radical movement as well. By making an anti-fascist offensive,
the fascists are then pushed onto the defensive. By exposing
fascist structres, they then become open to attack. (In April of
this year, for example, Priem's car was burnt out and destroyed.)
Anti-fascism has to be more than just responding to fascist pogroms
and racist murders. It needs to be an offensive form of politics
which aims not only at the fascist structrues which organize
fascist violence, but also at the system itself which tolerates
fascist activity and which creates a racist social climate that
allows such activity spread.
Uncover And Attack The Fascist Structures!
To Struggle Against Fascism Means To Struggle Against The
Imperialist And Patriarchal System!
17) A United Far-Right In Germany?
On Sunday, August 21, the leaders of the far-right
Republikaner Partei and the neo-nazi DVU party, former SS-officer
Franz Schoenhuber and Gerhard Frey, met to discuss plans to form
an alliance between the two parties. The fascists discussed plans
to avoid competing against one another in upcoming elections. In
a joint statement, the Republikaner and DVU leaders called on the
German far-right to form a "right-wing block against the red
popular front". Schoenhuber's meeting with Frey has been criticized
by many Republikaner members who fear ties with the DVU will harm
the Republikaner Partei's vote potential.
The DVU and the Republikaner combined have a total of 47,000
official members.
18) German Nazis Involved In Blitz Bombing?
Norwegian officials have stated they are investigating
possible German involvement in the August 21 bombing of the
squatted autonomist center "Blitz" in Oslo. The blast caused rather
heavy damage to the outside of the squatted house, but no persons
were inured. Groups of German neo-nazis had been spotted by police
in Oslo in the days both before and after the bombing.
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